Passed seven years ago, law to protect therapy patients still not in force

Seven years after Ontario passed a law to protect vulnerable people from unscrupulous and untrained psychotherapists, the law is not in force and anyone can claim to be a therapist.

The lack of action has placed at risk people suffering from a litany of emotional ailments, from a bad marital breakup to recovering from the trauma of sexual abuse, experts say.

“You can be a high school dropout and say, ‘I’m a psychotherapist,’” and you’re not breaking the law,” Nicole Maurice of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association said.

Ontario passed a law in 2007 to regulate those who hold themselves out to be psychotherapists. But the law hasn’t taken effect because the Health Ministry has struggled to forge regulations that meet the demands of the many professions affected, from psychologists and marital counsellors to therapists who use art or music to heal emotional wounds.

That’s left Ontario a Wild West for psychotherapy — broadly defined as the treatment of a mental disorder by psychological means — in which the therapist with the biggest online presence or lowball prices draws patients desperate to find some sort of help.

Some patients lose their savings. Some lose hope they’ll find help. Others get worse with bad consequences — psychologist Jack Ferrari has sometimes been left to pick up the pieces.

“You get some nasty stories,” said the London-based Ferrari, who has had a practice for 33 years.

In the absence of a regulatory college that sets standards, fields complaints and punishes therapists who commit misconduct, some health professionals have created voluntary associations but they don’t have a stick to wield, only a carrot — certification for those who meet their standards.

Just who’s certified and by whom is unclear: Consider a family doctor-turned psychotherapist in London, Dr. Peter John Brown, who’s been accused by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons of sexually abusing a patient, having intercourse and oral sex with her. His disciplinary hearing is scheduled in July.

Brown’s web site says he’s certified as a counsellor and in the treatment of those who are bisexual, but which organizations certified him is a mystery and he didn’t respond to voice mails left by The Free Press.

Even if a doctor is found guilty of abusing a patient and loses their medical licence, they could continue providing psychotherapy, said Ferrari, whose many positions of leadership include serving as president of the Ontario Psychological Association.

The province needs to take a final step to make into law the Psychotherapy Act by seeking royal assent, something Ferrari knows well — he’s on a transitional council that’s worked with the Health Ministry trying to craft regulations that work.

Fear of cutting off patients from good care by therapists who might not qualify under the new law.

Creating separate regulatory colleges for psychotherapy and mental health therapy; the latter has been put off until the former is done.

The Health Ministry promised to enact the law more than two years ago, then again earlier this year. Now, it’s looking at the fall, but not everyone is convinced it will happen.

“I’m not holding my breath,” said Sharon Ramsay, president of the Ontario Association of Registered Marriage and Family Therapists.

Marriage therapists in many American states have been regulated since the 1980s and Ontarians deserve the same protection, Ramsay said.

“It’s been delayed and delayed and delayed.”

Asked about the delay, a spokesperson for the new Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins issued a statement.

“It’s important that we take the time to ensure all components of the new governing framework will appropriately protect the public . . . The ministry is working with the transitional council to ensure that this occurs as soon as possible," Samantha Grant wrote.

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